Towns Full Of Bright Ideas For Holidays

December 07, 2000|By Sandra Del Re. Special to the Tribune.

NORTHWEST SUBURBS — Drivers on Interstate Highway 90 near River Road can't help but notice a 20-foot-tall snowman and the pair of toy soldiers in Rosemont Park. And don't try to miss the giant rocking horse in Arlington Heights.

It's that time of year in the northwest suburbs, where Christmas lights and other ornaments are blazing.

"It makes people feel good," Arlington Heights Village President Arlene J. Mulder said of her community's decorating efforts.

The village and Park District have strung 75,000 lights in North School Park on Arlington Heights Road. The park features the giant rocking horse, a windmill with moving fans and a Spanish ship. Some 175,000 lights adorn about 370 trees in the newly revitalized downtown area.

"Everyone really enjoys it," public works and forestry crew chief Scott Garrison said. "The whole town looks pretty. And the people in public works, we really care. We treat it like we are decorating our own house."

Mulder said special craftsmen, including a local ice sculptor, helped build the decorations.

"They are all intricate," she said. "You won't find them anywhere else. I get people from other communities who take the train through Arlington Heights to Chicago and say Arlington Heights is the highlight of their ride because it is so beautiful."

Mulder said she hopes other villages add to the holiday corridor of lights along the Union Pacific railroad tracks.

Rosemont's Stephens Park features a giant snowman and soldier balloons. The park also displays a half-dozen houses with mechanical figures and Christmas scenes.

One of the displays, built on two levels using moving Lionel trains, depicts a city complete with trees, people and a miniature water tower. Rosemont Elementary School pupils helped decorate the park.

Public Works Director Michael Raimondi directed the decorating, which started in September.

"The kids love it," he said. That's why we do it. They get a bang out of it."

Mt. Prospect is adding to the festive atmosphere by hosting a Winter Festival Parade with live reindeer at 5 p.m. Saturday at the commuter lot on Maple Street.

In Palatine, Town Square Park at Palatine Road and Smith Street offers its own traditional display: a tree draped in a red bow and covered with shining ornaments of blue and green. Replica reindeer graze near a lighted gazebo.

Hoffman Estates has a traditional tree in front of the Police Department complex at 1200 Gannon Rd., but with a new twist: All the ornaments are "bird-friendly."

"These are handmade ornaments made of seeds and berries," said Shirley Wells-English, assistant to the village manager.

Volunteers from schools, city boards and commissions have decorated a row of 16 trees with strands made of old police car tires in Des Plaines' new library plaza.

Though decorations and tree-lighting ceremonies range from the modest to the extravagant, the point isn't for towns to outdo one another with wattage and tinsel, officials say. Rather, it's to spread the soft glow of goodwill.

"We don't do this to be big and bold," said Brian Huckstadt, Arlington Heights Park District's director of parks and planning. "We are trying to be classy. We just want things to be nice."